The H-mode pedestal structure and its role on confinement in JET with a carbon and metal wall

We present the pedestal structure, as determined from the high-resolution Thomson scattering measurements, for a database of low and high triangularity (δ ≈ 0.22–0.39) 2.5 MA, type I ELMy H-mode JET plasmas after the installation of the new ITER-like wall (JET-ILW). The database explores the effect of increasing deuterium fuelling and nitrogen seeding with a view to explain the observed changes in performance (edge and global). The low triangularity JET-ILW plasmas show no significant change in performance and pedestal structure with increasing gas dosing. These results are in good agreement with EPED1 predictions. At high triangularity, for pure deuterium fuelled JET-ILW plasmas, there is a 20–30% reduction in global performance and pressure pedestal height in comparison to JET-C plasmas. This reduction in performance is primarily due to a degradation of the temperature pedestal height. The global performance and pressure pedestal height of JET-ILW plasmas can be partially recovered to that of JET-C plasmas with additional nitrogen seeding (Giroud et al 2013 Nucl. Fusion53 113025). This observed improvement in performance is predominately due to a significant increase in density pedestal height as well as a small increase in the temperature pedestal height. A key result with increasing deuterium fuelling for JET-ILW plasmas is there is no improvement in pressure pedestal height however the pedestal still widens which is inconsistent with the scaling. Furthermore, a key result with increasing nitrogen seeding is the pressure pedestal widening is due to an increase in the temperature pedestal width whilst the density pedestal shows no clear trend. The comparison of EPED1 predictions with the measurements at high triangularity is complex as, for example, for pure deuterium fuelled plasmas there is very good agreement for the pedestal height but not the width. In addition, current EPED1 runs under-predict the pedestal height and width at high nitrogen seeding for JET-ILW plasmas however further work is required to determine the significance of these deviations. Understanding these deviations is essential as provides an insight to the physical mechanisms governing the pedestal structure and edge performance.